Technical difficulties

From the Management

THE blog is experiencing some technical difficulties right now.

THE ISSUES

The issues don’t seem to affect the ability to post (yet!). Observant readers will have noticed several things within the past 24 to 36 hours:—

1. Absent all of the Sharing buttons at the bottom of all published posts

2. Absent the usual Like button at the bottom of all published posts

3. Absent the widget for email subscription at the bottom of the blog

4. Absent the text widget named “Unique Visitors” (via flagcounter.com since 2010)

5. Absent the text widget named “Visitor’s Locations” (via clustrmaps.com since 2010)

All the other functionalities (Nero ratings, notifications, etc) are fine and operational.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO READERS

This means readers at the moment…

… won’t be able to share my posts

… won’t be able to ‘like’ posts

… won’t be able to follow the blog by email

… and won’t get to see visitor statistics

As if anybody cares.

FOR MY OWN RECORD

For my own record, I’ve posted the matter on the WordPress.com Support Forums at this URL:

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/missing-buttonswidgets-for-likes-sharing-email-subscription-etc

I’ve searched the forums before posting there — so far, only one thread on this topic but that’s currently hidden until resolved by WordPress staff:—

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/where-are-the-sharing-buttons-at-the-end-of-my-post?replies=2#post-1677151

Otherwise, I’ll just have another glass of vino tinto…

The Naked Listener

UPDATE, 6.58pm

Problem solved!

I’ve accidentally found the cause (and the solution) to the issues. It seems Adblock Plus (currently v2.5.1) is gumming up the WordPress buttons and some widgets.

The solution (only for Firefox browser users) is straightforward:—

1. In browser menu, View > Toolbars > click Add-on Bar
2. Click the “ABP” icon > Disable on [the current website]
3. Fresh page and everything’s back on!

There’s no way to disable Adblock Plus over the entire wordpress.com domain. Just repeat the above steps for every someblog.wordpress.com subdomain. Seems like Adblock Plus has been designed like that in the first place.

Use Adblock Edge instead

Another accidental discovery is to give up using Adblock Plus and instead use Adblock Edge extension (a fork of the Plus also for Firefox).

Edge won’t interfere with the WordPress buttons, etc, and doesn’t require the individualised disabling that the Plus requires (being a bit tiresome to do).

This is in no way a recommendation or positive endorsement of Adblock Edge. It’s just a usable suggestion from one user to another that’s worth considering.

All’s well that ends well.

The Naked Listener

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